Friday April 11 2014

Looking Back: 'Babies from the Laboratory'

In 1969 the idea of 'test tube babies' was still a subject of speculation.

Three Varied Reactions

The news, announced some weeks ago by scientists working at Cambridge University, that human life might yet be produced with the aid of the laboratory and the test tube, has caused a wide variety of reactions.

Baroness Summerskill, a Labour Life Peer and a woman doctor said:

“It could mean that no woman need ever be without a baby if she wants one, but I am more concerned with the interesting social implications.

“The best sperm and the best ova in the country would be sought after. There might be sperm banks, like the blood banks we have today.

“It is absolutely outside the field of the Church,” she said. “It is a matter of a woman who wants to be a mother and is unable to be fertilized. In its normal attitude to women the Church has shown itself to be completely indifferent to the social status of women.

“There are very few modern young women sitting in the Church at all. The thinking, educated woman rejects the Church as the Church has rejected her.”

Long Way To Go

Professor Ian Donald, who holds the Chair of Midwifery at Glasgow University, is quoted as saying: “When you consider the process by which a baby is conceived naturally it is to my mind a miracle that birth ever happens at all, far less trying to implant a fertilized ovum inside a mother’s womb.

“We have a long way to go to get a fertilized ovum planted and growing in the womb, though I would not deny it may be possible one day.

“I believe it will always be difficult and incredibly expensive to carry out. The failure rate in such experiments would be enormous because the natural processes would not be in operation.

“I can’t imagine that this would ever be of any value in treating infertile women as there are so many reasons why some women cannot conceive. It is therefore nonsense to suggest that thousands of infertile women will benefit.”

The Rev. John L. Peat (Milngavie), joint-convenor of the Social and Moral Welfare Department of the Church of Scotland declared that it was not possible to say what the Church’s reaction would be until the subject had been discussed by the General Assembly.

“If fertilization of the ovum was from an outside donor then I would be inclined to think that the Church would come out against that,” he added. “But if the husband remains the father of the child then this might be acceptable.”

NB – Louise Joy Brown (born 25^th July 1978) was the first baby to be born as a result of pioneering medical advances that were only a dream in 1969.

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